This disclosure relates generally to community-based computer services and more particularly to administration of community-based computer services.
Generally, a community is a group of people who typically share a common interest. With the advent of the Internet and e-commerce, many companies are forming communities through intranets and extranets, for employees, suppliers, partners and clients. The communities make it easier and less expensive for the employees, suppliers, partners and clients to work together. In the context of computer services, these people are known as computer users or simply users. Information on each of the users in the communities is stored in a broad range of directories and databases. The information may comprise the user""s name, location, telephone number, organization, login identification, password, etc. Other information may comprise the user""s access privileges to resources such as applications and content. The directories may also store information on the physical devices (e.g., personal computers, servers, printers, routers, communication servers, etc.) in the networks that support the communities. Additional information may comprise the services (e.g., operating systems, applications, shared-file systems, print queues, etc.) available to each of the physical devices. All of the above information is generally known as community-based computer services.
The administration (i.e., the creation, maintenance, modification, updating and disabling) of these community-based computer services becomes difficult as the communities grow in size and complexity. In many cases, administration becomes an almost impossible task, unless a community is sub-divided into more manageable sub-communities. With the creation of these sub-communities, it becomes desirable to use a team of administrators who share responsibilities for administrating the community by assigning different individuals to administer the sub-communities. This type of administration is referred to as delegated administration.
Currently available administration tools that facilitate delegated administration do have their drawbacks. For instance, many limit the ability to delegate to arbitrary levels. In most tools, delegation of authority results in the delegates having unrestricted capabilities. Finally, most tools do not provide the ability to identify an arbitrary set of users whose management is to be delegated.
Therefore, there is a need for an innovative approach that will facilitate delegated administration of community-based computer services so that arbitrary levels of delegation are possible within administration of a community so that delegation can be performed for any type of organization or community, regardless of its structure. In addition, there is a need to be able to provide different types of administrative control so that the authority granted to a delegated administrator can be constrained appropriately. Furthermore, there is a need to be able to provide the capability to identify an arbitrary set of users whose management is to be delegated so that administration can be performed for any type of organization or community, regardless of its structure.
In one embodiment of this disclosure, there is a method, system and computer readable medium that stores instructions for instructing a computer system, to provide delegated administration of a user community. In this embodiment, the user community is divided into at least one administrative domain. Administrative privileges are granted to an administrator for the at least one administrative domain, wherein the administrative privileges include at least one of delegation authority and edit authority. The granted administrative privileges can be delegated to another administrator for the at least one administrative domain.
In a second embodiment of this disclosure, there is a system, method and computer readable medium that stores instructions for instructing a computer system, to enable an administrator to control administration of a user community. In this embodiment, information associated with the user community is provided to a user. The administrator is prompted to define at least one administrative domain for the user community. The administrator is also prompted to define administrative privileges for the at least one administrative domain, wherein the administrative privileges include at least one of delegation authority and edit authority. The at least one administrative domain and administrative privileges defined by the administrator are used to control administration of the user community.
In another embodiment, there is a user community administration tool for managing information associated with a user community. In the user community administration tool there is a domain definition component that defines the user community into at least one administrative domain. An administrative privileges component grants administrative privileges for the at least one administrative domain, wherein the administrative privileges include at least one of delegation authority and edit authority. An information management component manages information associated with the at least one administrative domain in accordance with the granted administrative privileges.
In still another embodiment, there is a system for managing information associated with a user community. This system comprises a database directory that contains a plurality of user information. A user community administration tool manages the plurality of user information in the database directory. The user community administration tool comprises a domain definition component that defines the user community into at least one administrative domain. An administrative privileges component grants administrative privileges for the at least one administrative domain, wherein the administrative privileges include at least one of delegation authority and edit authority. An information management component manages user information associated with the at least one administrative domain in accordance with the granted administrative privileges. A computing unit is configured to serve the user community administration tool and the database directory.
In a further embodiment, there is a system for managing information associated with a user community. This system comprises a database directory that contains a plurality of user information. A user community administration tool manages the plurality of user information in the database directory. The user community administration tool comprises a domain definition component that defines the user community into at least one administrative domain. An administrative privileges component grants administrative privileges for the at least one administrative domain, wherein the administrative privileges include at least one of delegation authority and edit authority. An information management component manages user information associated with the at least one administrative domain in accordance with the delegated administrative privileges. A first computing unit is configured to execute the user community administration tool. A second computing unit is configured to serve the database directory and the user community administration tool to the first computing unit over a network.